Republican National Chairman Michael Steele has a nightmare on his hands. And, so do the Tea Party supporters who aren't racist. To be fair, the majority of Tea Party protesters aren't racist, but they have a public image problem that won't go away.
The images and video clips throughout this article don't lie. Any reasonably intelligent human being can surmise that you won't see any of this psychobabble and racial bigotry on display at an EPA protest.
Ultimately, what started out as a well-intentioned movement has been reduced to a haven for uneducated bottom feeders. Any "positive" message the non-racist Tea Partiers hope to get across is drowned out by a cacophony of nasty insults, jeers, and racist psychobabble.
The video is really worth watching but the slide show below it is as powerful.
I would disagree with Philly2Philly on a couple of key points. The 'bagger movement did not start with good intentions, in fact, it was a sham to begin with. Last summer, Fox News promoted it, partially funded it, and the health insurance companies funded a big part of it, with the republicans being their usual opportunistic selves and trying to convince everyone that this was a 'grass roots movement' - it was nothing of the sort. I'm not a bit surprised at the nastiness these people exhibited yesterday. And let's be really fair: if those within that astroturf party who aren't racist (or at least bother to take issue with being called racist) don't stand up to the ones who exhibit blatant racism in their little public 'rallies' they are just as culpable for consent by silence for the really bad light the teabaggers have managed to cast themselves in.
ReplyDeleteI worked with a couple of baggers, and this is what I can tell you about them both: They may not carry the "massa" signs but will drop that n-word whenever they think they can get away with it, and I've seen that for myself.
I totally agree but if I'm not mistaken, the anti-tax movement started out several years ago and has been usurped by the Buggers. I didn't agree with the anti-tax folks but don't recall seeing this kind of blatant hate and racism.
ReplyDeletethese morons are an embarrassment to our country. They call themselves patriots, that is a friggin joke! I don't know how we will survive 7 more years of this hate.
ReplyDeleteI see on your bloglist where Boehner tells the children of his caucus to act like grown-ups when the bill passes tonight, LOL! I can see Cantor crying like a baby sitting on Bachmanns lap, she is stroking his hair while she cries with him! GAG....
ReplyDeleteI agree with BeeKeeper.. I don't think it started with any intentions except to defeat Obama.....
ReplyDeleteWhere were these people protesting about Bush, if they thought he was so wrong.. No Where.. they went along with it because he was a white man.
I think the entire Tea Baggers movement is about nothing but race.. They started protesting as soon as he was elected and it has just gotten worse.. Now it is not "grass roots" but a corporate led refusal to accept we have a Black man in the White House.
I'm too tired to look for verification of this but I can remember tax protesters gathering as many as 4 -5 years ago. Tax protesters have actually been around for a much longer time. I have also recently read where the Tea Partiers basically took over the tax revolution. While made up of extremists on the right, they did not carry threatening racist signs or spit on Congressmen or yell racial/gay slurs.
ReplyDeleteRemember, the Buggers weren't around before Obama was elected and it wasn't till after that all this ugly crap started.
Just popped in over at Sue's. We libs need to party hard tonight after all we've had to endure.
ReplyDeleteEveryone's invited to my place, too, if it gets too noisy here and someone calls the cops.
I've got some Sam Adams ale and elitist Chardonnay for everyone and Kettle Popcorn!
Woohoo. Where's TRUTH and TAO and OSO???
Probably watching C-Span?
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited but God I hate those stupid Republicans. Liars all - even up to the last minute.
It would be fun to all be together wouldn't it.
Short of that, thank God for the Internet.
We are together Leslie. Have some of these pita chips I just took out of the oven. Salsa's over there on the coffee table, next to that pile of "The Nation" magazines.
ReplyDeleteTofu bourguignon, anyone?:-)
ReplyDeleteI think that teabuggerdom does have a grass-roots, or maybe weed-roots, element to it. If there were some guiding intelligence behind the scenes, controlling the whole thing, that intelligence would be doing a better job of keeping all this racism from contaminating and undermining whatever message it's trying to get across. As it is, the racism is coming to dominate the image of the movement because everything else is incoherent.
"weed-roots." I like that one.
ReplyDeleteNot only has racism taken over their movement, so-called leaders haven't even tried to stop it - in truth because they deep down agree with it although they might not admit it publicly. It's so out of hand at this point that I don't know how it can be checked.
Salud!
I don't eat salsa but I'll take a huge bowl of tortilla chips to go with my wine! Infidel, Tofu what?? LOLOL
ReplyDeleteAs long as this is taking, I'd be drunk as a skunk by now.
ReplyDeleteI know me too! first they said 1pm, then 8pm, then 9:30, now 10. Good thing I didn't take an Ambien..
ReplyDeleteI will bring pretzels...and if anyone chokes then we will know they are conservatives! :)
ReplyDeleteSue: Infidel, Tofu what??
ReplyDeleteActually I stole that one from Jon Stewart. Beef bourguignon is a French-style way of serving beef. Tofu bourguignon would be the ultimate stereotypical dish for a liberal party -- French and vegetarian!
TNLib: As long as this is taking, I'd be drunk as a skunk by now.
Everyone's entitled occasionally. You'd still be more coherent than the teabuggers are going to be tomorrow morning.
I feel like going outside and hugging a tree right now!!
ReplyDeleteI love tofu! But I need health care.
ReplyDeleteI used to hug trees back in the 60s. I guess that makes me a commie.
ReplyDeleteI had Amelia outside hugging a tree last week, it was so friggin CUTE!!
ReplyDeleteThis teabag group is quite a crowd, heh? I dont keep up with them much only because when I first heard of these folk's I heard that they were some grassroot's kind of alternative thought in politic's .... so of course I wanted to hear more. However after reviewing some of their stuff, it appaered to me that they were nothing more than just an extreme version of the right wing, nothing really alternative or unique, so I lost interest in them .... basically .... same shit in a new package with a few new costume's is all. I actually dont fit in with the right or left ... because my thinking is not in sync with either side .... but I will be voting democrat, only because I'm looking for a smoother ride through these time's, and these two parties dominate. However .... the sad thing is for these teabag's is they truely dont even know why they believe what they do .... basically going through the motion's as if reading a script, I believe for instance that because of pop culture, corporate control and media that we are all brainwashed to a degree at time's on certain thing's .... however the level of brainwashing on them is amplified. Quick random example .... take health care .... they claim they believe that if the controlling insurance giant's had any competition beside's those in their own, it would be communism ..... yet at the same time .... believe that this thinking is "free market". I myself wanted "public option", since it was brought up initially, but I even wanted more than that, being I wanted total nationalized and/or universal health care, simply because of my experience's when I stayed in UK as well as Canada, I still have familia in Canada that work's in the system .... so you can say my way of thinking by most folk's standard's is called socialism. I dont see it as any more than the social service's (beside's .... I dont feel health care and lives should be traded and marketed like a commodity on the exchange) we use and have now from the mail service to social security to public school's to the library. These folk's may say that in some countries such as France .... look how much they pay in taxes? But look at what they get for their taxes. I pay most of my income here to corporation's, not taxes .... however, I know if I get a catastophic illness, or surgery ... I might end up homeless in an alley living off what ever I can find. There is a difference. Just my 2 cent's is all. Nice posting.
ReplyDeleteThank You Ms.Tnlb ...............
(FWIW, when I went to select a profile, something hicupped and my comment disappeared. This is the second or third time that has happened with this Select profile setup. Unfortunately, I don't have my form-entry saver on this PC.)
ReplyDeleteGood post and comments. I will only add that it's not just about race with teabaggers. CNN showed a clip yesterday of Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights hero, being jeered and called the N-word. And then, the same pack of jackals and lowlifes jeered Rep. Barney Frank, calling him a faggot.
These so-called teabaggers aren't just disaffected political protesters. They sure as hell aren't patriots. What they are is the raw material of Nazism. They're the same breed of of badly raised, ignorant haters the Nazi Party recruited to become its brown-shirt bullies in the early 1930s.
Yes We Can and Yes We Did... Halloo.. it has passed.
ReplyDeleteOh my God. I am so thrilled. And not by just one vote either, which I think was predicted? I wish I could have stayed awake. Now I am and have no place to go but back to bed.
ReplyDeleteRC: "social justice?" But that's socialism and isn't that what Beck % Co. rail against? Thanks for coming and please come back. A really good comment.
SW: Absolutely they are Nazi-like. And unless leaders on both sides of the aisle start denouncing them this minute, I'm afraid things are just going to get worse. They don't know any boundaries. I'm always knocking out comments somehow and having to retype them - not fun when they're long.
Annette: Yes we did, and ain't it wonderful?
To be fair, the majority of Tea Party protesters aren't racist...
ReplyDeleteAll the teabaggers I work barely hide their racism. Its all they can do not to say the "N" word about the president.
I've said from the very, very beginning that this was all about race. I live in the South and my Southern relatives are proof of the pudding. They may not use the N word but their "good manners" is a thin veil covering a deep well of hate and racism. I know this mentality, or lack of it, too well to dismiss the entire lot of them as being lovers of all mankind.
ReplyDeleteIt absolutely is about race. The hate is far deeper than anything shown to our past dem presidents.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true about the racist psychology, these folk's no not to say the word "nigger", but it is planted deep within many whether they say it or not, and NOT just in the south I may add ... the most racist city I have ever lived in was Brooklyn,NY believe it or not, neighborhood's were not only seperated by color, but also by nationality, Irish, Italian, Greek, German, Polish, Puerto Rican/ New York Rican, etc.... and everyone had a title, back then they were called "spade's" and "spook's" mostly, who were black in Brooklyn that is. To many who think of the President as a "N" (let's say) they were programmed mostly through community and familia to believe that black's are good worker's, but never really could run or manage anything .... Charlie Manson actually thought like this at a time, it was the whole basis of bringing about "Helter Skelter" ... and yes ...Charlie personally told me that, as well as other's.
ReplyDeleteThanx Ms.Tnlb ......
RC: Oh, I know it's not limited to the south. My 1st is from NY (Irish) and I saw plenty of it there. I also saw it in my 2nd's family in VA - my track record hasn't been sterling - where to this day blacks are referred to as darkies. And these are so-called upper crust. It's all over the country but Southerners are masters at it. Were I black, I ould not want my car to break down on a lonely country road at night.
ReplyDeleteSince their inception the Teaparty crowd (not a movement since they do have the numbers or clout) have been “haters not debaters”. In my opinion this is what the small portions of the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” have brought you. They are good at “Follow the Leader” of their dullard leaders, they listen to Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush and Savage and the rest of the Blowhards. Are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think? The world is complicated and most republicans (Hamiliton, Lincoln, Roosevelt) believe that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now its about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although some republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe most of them are just going along and fanning the flames.
ReplyDeleteAs for the window. This was staged by one of Cantor’s gun buddy, good try at being a victim but I don’t buy it, next.